Baby Blue Whale Nursing (Exclusive Drone Footage)

Baby Blue Whale Nursing (Exclusive Drone Footage)

March 2, 2016 - While researching pygmy blue whales in the South Taranaki Bight region of New Zealand, Leigh Torres used a drone to capture footage of a baby blue whale nursing. This is believed to bethe first time that aerial footage has documented the nursing behavior of this endangered marine species.

Note: After we published this story a reader alerted us to this older video on YouTube, which also purports to show a blue whale calf nursing. After watching the video, Torres says it's possible that's what is going on but says the calf isn't visible enough to tell. "Our video is much more convincing that they are nursing because the calf is repeatedly ‘stationed’ below the mother for an extended period," she says. Updated on March 4 at 7 pm ET.

Torres, a National Geographic Society/Waitt grantee, hopes her research will lead to strategies that will help protect the blue whale population in the bight, which is open to oil and gas development. Read Torres's blog to learn more about her research.

We believe this is the first time that there’s been any aerial footage of nursing of a baleen whale, especially in a blue whale. I do believe it is a first.

We are studying blue whale populations in the South Taranaki Bight region of New Zealand and along the west coast of New Zealand that has recently been documented. And we’re trying to get some baseline information about the population: what they’re doing there and their behavior.

We came across a pair that we could see from the vessel. We were about a hundred meters away that we could tell by the size difference between the two animals that one was a mother and one was a calf.

It’s a bit of a guess how old is but we think the calf if probably about four to six months old.

Whales and dolphins have to coordinate breathing with lactation. And what we can see in this video is that the calf is alternating between coming to the surface to breathe and then going under its mom for a period to suckle. The animals are basically stationary so we don’t think this is sort of a position that would help locomotion.

Once lactation is done at what’s estimated to be about five to seven months, that calf is considered weaned and then it should go off on it’s own at that that point. So these animals are generally solitary. They can aggregate on feeding grounds.

Seeing this activity, this nursing activity as well as the five mom/calf pairs in this region, definitely shows us that this population is reproducing and it’s an important area for moms to come and raise their young.

The South Taranaki Bight has a fair bit of industrial activity from oil and gas development and there’s also vessel traffic through the area. So there are a number of human uses there that we just need to be able to manage appropriately in terms of protection of these blue whales and their habitat.

Baby Blue Whale Nursing (Exclusive Drone Footage)

March 2, 2016 - While researching pygmy blue whales in the South Taranaki Bight region of New Zealand, Leigh Torres used a drone to capture footage of a baby blue whale nursing. This is believed to bethe first time that aerial footage has documented the nursing behavior of this endangered marine species.

Note: After we published this story a reader alerted us to this older video on YouTube, which also purports to show a blue whale calf nursing. After watching the video, Torres says it's possible that's what is going on but says the calf isn't visible enough to tell. "Our video is much more convincing that they are nursing because the calf is repeatedly ‘stationed’ below the mother for an extended period," she says. Updated on March 4 at 7 pm ET.

Torres, a National Geographic Society/Waitt grantee, hopes her research will lead to strategies that will help protect the blue whale population in the bight, which is open to oil and gas development. Read Torres's blog to learn more about her research.